lost; ethma

fifteen

song:
sex money feelings die- lykke li

ethan

about two weeks later

after olivia grilled me on every damn thought i've ever had towards emma, i went home and called my aunt.

she said she had two open spots available for work, but i turned down the offer for me to work there. i couldn't make things even more complicated for emma.

i gave her emma's number and told her that she makes a killer iced latte. my aunt was pretty desperate, so she landed the job.

olivia said she went home and talked to emma about the opportunity, and emma easily agreed.

she started working there a few days later and has been happily working at the coffee shop for almost two weeks.

she's obviously still broken, though. at least i'm assuming. it's been a month since grayson bailed on the relationship, and even i understand that you can't get over love that easily.

love is... hard to deal with.

i'm just happy to help with something. so at least i'll know i'm not good for nothing.

also, grayson called me earlier. he's having a pretty shitty time apparently, so he wanted to come over here later and drink. and hopefully talk.

i'm happy to do it with him. i actually find myself pretty damn excited for him to willingly come over.

it's been almost two months since i got here, and the whole point of me coming to town was to reconnect with grayson.

now i'm all caught up with emma (which grayson does not need to know about).

i'm expecting everything to go smoothly.

to pass time, i decide to go down to the gym in the apartment building to workout. i usually do it daily, but i have been too preoccupied the past few days to make time for it.

usually i'm the only one down there. i don't have much of a risk of running into emma because she always does soulcycle with amanda. olivia and i workout together on occasion.

i've always wondered what that would be like. to try soulcycle.

i get down to the gym and open the door. mostly empty, except..

emma and olivia. both on treadmills. in sports bras and biker shorts.

except my eyes are only on one of them.

"hey!" olivia says. then her eyes fill with panic as she glances over to emma, then back to me.

"uh, i'm sorry..." i mutter. emma whips her head around to look at me. "i'll just go somewhere else. you girls probably want the gym to yourselves.."

olivia silently nods her head on the treadmill as she looks down. i know she doesn't want me to mess anything up.

"you can stay," emma says nonchalantly. "it's not like we have the gym reserved."

i'm shocked simply at the fact that emma will tolerate me being in her vicinity.

"if you insist," i wink at her.

i go over to the farthest treadmill from them and start running. i slowly keep increasing the speed and incline until i'm at a good pace.

i just so happen to be on emma's side of the treadmills, so when i look over at her... i catch her already staring at me.

this should be a fun game.

i watch her increase her pace. it's like we're racing... but somehow not moving at all. we keep catching each other's eyes but knowing that it could never go anywhere past this... for obvious reasons.

us running together on opposite sides of the gym.

i'm taking over, gaining speed. suddenly, she makes a comeback and looks to be rushing ahead of me. i push myself to go harder, and am at a full blown run. i'm too focused to go any slower.

neither of us notice that olivia has left the gym when we finished our run.

"she got here before me," emma pants as we get off the treadmills. "running is good for, you know, stress. so i decided i would join her."

i know all about stress emma chamberlain.

"yeah?" i take my towel and wipe off the sweat from my forehead. she walks in my direction and stands about a foot apart from me. i look at her confusingly and my eyes meet her bright blue ones.

"anyway," she says. "i should head up."

"wanna bench press?" i ask. "it's good to have a balanced workout."

she narrows her eyes at me. "are you challenging me? cause i can guarantee you that i'm not gonna win." she glances down at my biceps. not to seem like an asshole, but today was a good day to wear a tank top.

"just for fun," i say. "or you could watch me."

"fine."

emma sits down on a bench by the weights as i get on the weight lifter. i grab a 100 pound and bench press it. i can feel her eyes on me.

way too easy.

i get a 150 and start lifting it up and down, this being the slightest bit harder. i'm starting to sweat more, compiled on top of the sweat from the run.

200. 250.

this is where i start to tap out, but at least emma is entertained. "i'm gonna go now," she mumbles. she hurriedly grabs her things and bolts out of the gym.

i clean up and get ready to go.

i felt something with her, in this gym.

and i know she felt it too.

short chapter i'm sorry luvs
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